When Someone is Sick

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: When Someone is Sick ------------------- Date: 9/15/2002
Keywords: "healing" "prayer"
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Passage: Mark 1:30-31*

30. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her.

31. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.

Questions

1. Are you quick to pray when you or others are hurting or sick?

 

2. Have there been times in your life when you have felt the prayers of others on your behalf?

 

Practical help

I think I’m a product of my culture, because although I personally have a very good relationship with my mother-in-law, the first thing I think of when I hear or read the words "mother-in-law" are jokes. The reality is that in-laws can be a strain on marriages. We fall in love and choose to marry that one special person…and his or her family gets tossed in with the deal. Of course the same thing can be said for our own parents. We didn’t choose them either (and they may or may not have chosen us, if you come to think about it…unless you are adopted).

But here we have one of Jesus’ disciples, Simon (also known as Peter) upon seeing that his mother-in-law is sick, going directly to Jesus on her behalf. By this time, I’m sure he trusted Jesus’ ability to heal and desired this for his wife’s mother.

Perhaps you are at this Web site, not because you have a personal problem with pornography, but you have a loved-one who does. Never loose heart, but go to Jesus in prayer. Note that the sick person in this story did nothing on her own behalf. She might not even have known who Jesus was at this point. It isn’t what we do, it is what God does for us. We are powerless to affect the changes in our own lives, let alone the lives of others. But unconditional prayer is powerful. Make sure you are not saying to God, "If you give me this request, then I will do these things for you." Wrong approach. God is not a vending machine you can manipulate in any way. But His heart is toward the broken hearted, and in His own time, He will act.

Understand that healing must come before useful service, not the reverse. If you have an addiction, yet you believe God wants you to minister to others, your missing something huge.

Finally, note that when people are healed, it enables them to be of service to the Master. If you are struggling with this addiction, your recovery should lead you into service for God and others. In spite of how you might feel about yourself, you are of inestimable worth and have great potential for service.

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."